Week Two
Kleist: Luther and the Peasants’ Revolt
Michael Kohlhaas and Incendiary Rhetoric
I. The Peasants’ Revolt 1525
----hundreds of small
fiefdoms/territories
---peasants and serfs doing
agricultural work
---dissent and armed revolt
March 1525 The Twelve articles
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/peasant-war-germany/ch0e.htm
April 4, 1525 Weinsberg
Massacre impalings
II. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
http://updatecenter.britannica.com/eb/image?binaryId=83827&rendTypeId=4
1505 becomes a monk against his father’s wishes
(wanted him to be a lawyer)
1507 ordained a priest
Published books, pamphlets,
treatises, theses
1517: 95 Theses on the Power of Indulgences
What was Luther doing in the
95 theses?
Selling of Indulgences
Film: Luther 2003
NFP Teleart
Joseph Fiennes
Johann Tetzel traveling preacher
St. Peter’s Basilica
http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/st-peters-basilica-vatican-city-i749.jpg
Relics
1521 Diet of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Bernard-Orley/Portrait-of-Charles-V-1500-58-at-the-Age-of-About-Sixteen-1516-Giclee-Print-C11721611.jpeg
Elector of Saxony offers
protection at
http://www.natureparktravel.com/wartburg/wartburg.jpg
Translates the New Testament
into German
“Through faith alone
shall ye be saved”
Meanwhile back on the farms,
the peasants revolted, inspired, in part by Luther’s teachings
Twelfth Article of the
Peasants’ demands:
Conclusion. — In the twelfth place it is our
conclusion and final resolution, that if any one or more of the articles here
set forth should not be in agreement with the word of God, as we think they
are, such article we will willingly
recede from when it is proved really to be against the word of God by a clear
explanation of the Scripture. Or if articles should now be conceded to us
that are hereafter discovered to be unjust, from that hour they shall be dead
and null and without force. Likewise, if more complaints should be discovered
which are based upon truth and the Scriptures and relate to offenses against
God and our neighbour, we have determined to reserve
the right to present these also, and to exercise ourselves in all Christian
teaching. For this we shall pray God, since He can grant these, and He alone.
The peace of Christ abide with us all.
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“Against the Murdering and
Robbing Bands of Peasants”! (May 1525)
http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~mariterel/against_the_robbing_and_murderin.htm
Luther was an
active public writer who regularly intervened in political quarrels of his day.
III. Kohlhaas’s Incendiary Rhetoric
Incendiary:
Arsonist—but also one who murders and burns cities and towns. Early Modern
terrorist.
